When we first saw the giant tattoo adorning the entire back of Ben Affleck, the iced coffee fanatic initially claimed the massive phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes design was merely for a movie. Eventually, his exes Jennifer Garner and Jennifer Lopez delivered sweet burns about the tat, and after a 2018 New Yorker essay, the actor tweeted that he was “fine” and had “Thick skin bolstered by garish tattoos,” seemingly admitting that the tat is, in fact, real.
And now, in a new interview with Ellen DeGeneres, Affleck finally spoke out about his tattoo, revealing once and for all that … he loves it.
Per People, Affleck appeared on Ellen on Thursday, during which he chatted about the extremely colorful phoenix tattoo that takes up the entirety of his back — and addressed the paparazzi pics from March 2018, in which his tat was on full display on a beach. “It’s not something that I sort of kept private,” Affleck told DeGeneres. “It wasn’t like I was doing photo shoots or whatever, we were two hours north of the city on an island in Hawaii and we didn’t know the paparazzi were there. So they got a picture of my tattoo. And sentiment ran … you know, against.”
DeGeneres then astutely observed that it looks like the phoenix is rising from Affleck’s ass, and he told DeGeneres that it “represents something important to me.” Affleck added, “It’s meaningful to me, I like it. I love my tattoo. I’m very happy with it. Luckily, I’m the one who has it.”
You know what? If he loves his tattoo, then I love that for him.